In the Days After
by Dukefan1982
Summary: Dealing with the first few days after Max dies.


After taking care of things at the hospital Brennan let Booth take her home. Once they were out of the parking structure and on their way home Booth glanced at Brennan, she was tearing the scratchy paper tissue that the nurse thrust in her hand into tiny bits without even realizing it. "Bones, I'm sorry I wasn't there…"

"It's fine, Booth, you needed to take care of the children and supervise the case. Who is with the children anyway?"

Booth smiled a little, "Christine asked if Aubrey could stay with them instead of another agent she didn't know. He was more than happy to stay with them. When I left the house they were getting the finger paint out."

"That's good. When dad woke up, the first thing he did was ask if Hank and Christine were okay…. Then he started telling me about a dream he had when he was under anesthesia. Mom, Dad, Russ and I were driving and it was raining… I was rubbing his earlobe, he said it put him at ease when he was diving… Then I thought he fell asleep, the doctor said the anesthesia and all the other medications would make him very sleepy for the rest of the night. After a few seconds I realized something was wrong, I tried to wake him up, but then all the alarms started going off…" Brennan started crying again, Booth grabbed another tissue from the small package Brennan kept on the console and handed it to her.

"The doctor said the surgery went well, they had to give him a few units of blood, but he was stable the whole time. He thought dad would make a full recovery. Barring complications he would have been home by Tuesday…. I was going to have him stay with us for a little while. I was going to take vacation days to stay with him…" Booth put his hand on top of Brennan's.

"Bones, the doctor said the stress of today plus the stress of the surgery and it being so soon after getting the pacemaker was too much for his body to handle and it gave out."

"He wanted to stay with me as protection, but I asked him to go with Christine and Hank… I thought they'd be scared and having someone there that they knew would make the situation easier for them. I should have let him stay with us, if I had he'd be fine."

"Bones, don't do this to yourself. You did the right thing, the kids needed Max with them. He made sure they were safe and then he came back upstairs and took out one of the guys. If it wasn't for your dad the situation might have been a lot worse… he is a hero, Bones…" Booth turned into their driveway and parked beside Aubrey's SUV.

"Let me go in ahead of you and head off Christine, that way you can go to the bathroom and try to lessen the fact you've been crying. It might be a little easier for her that way."

"Christine should be in bed, its hours past her bedtime…"

"It is, but you know she'll be up. If Aubrey hadn't been there I'd had to fight her about coming to the hospital with me." Booth got out and went around to Brennan's side, opened the door and reached across her to unbuckle her seatbelt. It was then Brennan noticed the bits of shredded tissue. She started to pick them up. "Bones, leave it, I'll get it when I suck Hank's goldfish crumbs out of the backseat." Brennan nodded slightly and let Booth gently pull her from the SUV. They slowly make their way to the front door with Booth wrapping his arm around Brennan for a little extra support. Booth opened the door he picked up Christine before she noticed Brennan quickly heading for her and Booth's bedroom.

"Hi monkey!"

"Hi Daddy! Can we go see grandpa now?"

Booth smiled, "let's go get you something to drink while mommy's in the bathroom. Then when she comes out we'll talk about it, okay?" Booth started toward the kitchen.

"Okay." Booth went to the refrigerator and pulled out a tropical punch juice box. He unwrapped the straw and poked it through the small foil circle before handing it to Christine. The little girl raised an eyebrow, Brennan had a nothing to drink but water or milk after dinner rule. "Mommy won't mind, go ahead and drink it."

"Okay. " Booth kissed Christine's forehead and headed for the couch. "Thanks for staying with them, Aubrey."

"You're welcome, Booth. We had fun, we finger painted, played Candy Land and had spaghetti for dinner. I think Hank got more of it on his shirt and highchair than he actually ate…"

Booth laughed, "That sounds about right."

"After dinner I cleaned Hank up and got him ready for bed. Christine got ready for bed herself. After that we read a story or two. Hank fell asleep before I got done with the second book. Christine refused to go to bed until you two came home." Aubrey shrugged.

"It's fine."

"I'm going to head out unless you need me to stay?"

"No we're fine."

"Okay. Call me if you need anything. Don't worry about work stuff I got it covered… Give Dr. B my best."

"I will."

"Bye Christine."

"Bye Aubrey…"

A few minutes later Brennan came into the living room. She had removed the rest of her makeup, tied her hair back in a ponytail and changed into one of Booth's FBI t-shirts and a pair of navy plaid pajama bottoms. Brennan sat down on the couch and smiled a little when Christine crawled into her lap.

"Mommy, can we go see grandpa now? I drew him a picture!"

Brennan ran her fingers through Christine's hair and kissed the top of her head. "Honey, grandpa…Grandpa he…" Brennan took a couple of deep breaths. "Christine, grandpa died…"

It took a few seconds for Christine to process what Brennan had said, but once she did she started crying. Booth gently took the juice box from her hand and set it on the end table before wrapping his arm around Christine and Brennan who had silent tears running down her cheeks. Once Christine's tears had slowed down she looked at Brennan, "But daddy said he was fine before he left. He was going to get you and come home…Daddy lied!" Christine's foot made contact with Booth's knee.

"Christine look at me…" Brennan waited until Christine turned her head toward her. "Daddy didn't lie, when I called him before he left grandpa was fine. The doctors said he was fine and would be in the hospital for a few days then he was going to come stay with us until he got better."

"Then how come he died?"

"Well sweetheart, a few months ago grandpa had something wrong with his heart and he went to the doctor so they could fix it. The doctors fixed his heart and he was fine. When he got hurt today it was too much for him and his body gave out. That can happen when you're older like grandpa was…"

"Oh. Did it hurt?"

"No. Daddy and I were there with him he died…"

"We're you scared?"

"No."

"Was Daddy?"

"No monkey I wasn't scared."

"Do you think grandpa was?"

"No. When the doctor told us he'd be fine and let us see him the first thing he asked me was if you and Hank were okay…"

"We were watching a movie and grandpa turned it off really fast and took me and Hank downstairs with the other man. Then he went back upstairs and I never saw him again… after a while that man took us back upstairs and put us in the truck thing until you came to get us. I was really scared, mommy."

"I'm sorry you were scared, sweetheart." Brennan hugged Christine and kissed the top of her head. "Mommy, you're squeezing me too much!"

Brennan stopped and pulled back a little, "Sorry, sweetheart." Christine started playing with Brennan's necklace and after a few minutes she started to relax. Brennan grabbed a few tissues she'd brought from the bathroom and wiped Christine's tears. Booth handed her back her juice box. "Finish your juice, monkey." Brennan started rocking Christine a little in hopes it would comfort her. After a little while they heard Hank start to cry from his room. "I'll go he's probably upset because his whole routine was off today." Brennan nodded and watched Booth go to Hank's room a few minutes later he was back with a whimpering Hank who reached for Brennan as soon as he saw her. "Momma." Brennan smiled as Booth carefully handed him to her. "Hi sweetheart." Brennan kissed the side of Hank's head.

"Christine, sit next to mommy. I'll hold you in a minute."

"No, I want mommy to hold me!"

"Christine, I can't hold both of you comfortably. I'll be right next to you. I'll hold you again later." Christine slid off Brennan's lap onto the couch. Booth came back a minute later and handed Brennan one of Hank's sippy cups. "Milk warmed up enough to take the chill off. I thought it might help." Brennan handed Hank the cup and began rocking him. A little over an hour later both kids were sound asleep in their parent's arms.

"I lied to Christine, Booth. You weren't there with me when dad died and I was scared when he died."

"It's okay, Bones in this situation she needed the comfort of a lie."

"I don't like lying to our children, Booth."

"Bones, it's late lets go to bed and put the kids in our bed, just in case they wake up again."

"Booth, I can't sleep…"

"I know. Just lay down and rest…"

The next morning Booth woke up to Christine's hand in his face. He carefully moved the sleeping six year old over and smiled a little Brennan and Hank were still sound asleep. When he came back from the bathroom Booth found Christine awake, he put a finger to his lips and picked her up. Once they were in the kitchen Booth sat Christine at the counter, "we're having cereal today Christine. I'll make pancakes for everyone tomorrow."

"Okay." Booth poured some granola into Christine's pink princess bowl and helped her add the milk. Twenty minutes later Brennan wordlessly strapped Hank into his highchair and got the whole grain cereal that he could easily feed himself and poured some on the tray and filled his sippy cup. Then she fled to the glassed in porch, Booth shook his head and started making Brennan tea. When it was done he went out on the porch after checking that he could see both kids he put the tea on the table beside the lounge chair." Bones, I brought you tea… Do you want anything else?"

"Booth, what's today?"

"Wednesday…our busy day when Max would come over for breakfast and get the kids ready so we could go in early… I'm sorry, Bones…"

"I liked when dad came over for breakfast reminded me of when I was a child. He always made breakfast and then he took Russ and me to school with him while mom went to her bookkeeping job. We'd get there early and I'd help him get stuff set up for the day before I went to my class. Russ slept in dad's desk chair…"

"I'm sorry, Bones."

Brennan shrugged a shoulder, "I would like to be alone right now…"

"Sure Bones." Booth looked at Brennan for another minute before heading back inside. A little while later Booth watched as Christine slipped onto the porch. He waited for Brennan to send her back inside, but she never did. A little bit later Hank was riding his train around the living room when he noticed Brennan was outside, he tried to go to her, Booth opened the door and lifted Hank and the train over the threshold. Brennan and the kids spent most of the day on the porch. Booth brought them lunch and went inside. It hurt him that Brennan was hurting and he couldn't fix it. It also hurt him that she was freezing him out, but he knew she'd let him in when she was ready, he just had to be patient. He was thankful that Brennan was letting the kids in. Later that night after Brennan helped Booth with dinner and putting the kids in bed she headed out to the porch, this time Booth followed. He sat quietly on the other end of the couch Brennan was on, after a little while she scooted over to him. Booth put his arm around her and waited as the tears silently hit his shirt. After a few minutes Brennan abruptly sat up, "I can't believe I forgot to call Russ…"

"I called him this morning after the kids came out here. He doubts he can make it for the funeral, Hayley is really sick. She has an infection that so far antibiotics haven't touched. He doesn't want to leave Amy in case something happens."

"I understand."

"He said for you to call him when you're ready."

"Maybe tomorrow. I need to go to dad's tomorrow and pick out something for him to wear. I don't know where his keys are though."

"They're probably in the bag of his belongings we got from the hospital. If not I can practice my lock picking skills."

Brennan smiled a little. "Okay. I hated dad when he came back, but after a while we worked things out and I let him in and let him be the best grandpa to Christine, Hank, and Parker that the was capable of being. I'm going to miss him so much…"

"I know, Bones me too. Despite everything Max was a good guy."

The next afternoon Angela took a long lunch and came over to the house to watch Christine and Hank wile Brennan and Booth went to Max's apartment. When they got there Brennan took the set of keys she found in the plastic bag that held his shoes, socks and stuff from his pockets and tried to unlock the door. After watching Brennan try and unlock the door because her normally steady hands were shaking, Booth took the keys from her and unlocked the door. Once they were inside Brennan took Booth's hand and lead him back to Max's bedroom. He put his arm around Brennan as she opened the closet.

"The suit he wore for our wedding was a rental… Do you think I should buy him a suit?"

"No, Max wasn't the suit and tie type. Just get a pair of slacks and a dress shirt…maybe a sport coat."

"Okay." Brennan chose a navy button down shirt and black pants and a black sport coat. Once the clothes were put in a bag, Brennan pulled out a box form the closet shelf. She opened the flaps, "it's all of our photo albums from when were kids. I thought these were left in the house when CPS took me away, they wouldn't let me take them with me." Brennan sat on the bed and began looking through the albums. "I'm gone go clean out the fridge while you look at the albums."

"Okay."

An hour and a half later Brennan was sitting on the porch with Christine and Booth sharing her childhood memories with them.


End file.
